A collection of thoughts, essays, opinion and nonsense from a former morning show host with way too much time on his hands.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Bonus Babies

The Bonus. It's something we all want at the end of the year, and most of us have the attitude that we deserve one. In radio, the Christmas (sorry, "Holiday") Bonus has been a hit or miss proposition, and more often than not the bonus has equaled $0. This was always met with disappointment at how a big money company couldn't even slide a few bucks down to the hard working employees working down in the company hull. Damn it, we deserved it, even if the company had a lousy year. The bottom line didn't matter. You're supposed to get a bonus, right?

The big flap this week are the bonuses given to AIG, the company at the epicenter of the bailout bonanza. Employees got bonuses? Why did they get bailout money, then? Look, I don't know if those who got bonuses were responsible for the ruin that AIG became, but that's really not the central issue. What's seemingly being glossed over is that these same bonuses were okayed by the same administration that is now trying to tax them. The so-called "stimulus" package contained language that said it was fine for bonuses to be paid to companies who received bailout money. This was the same bill that the Obama administration said was vital to prevent the American economy from completely collapsing (talk about fear-mongering). Do we really need anymore proof that our lawmakers didn't read the biggest spending package in the country's history before voting to approve it?

I'm not against the bonuses. Those that are screaming bloody murder are just masking their jealousy that those bonuses won't be directly deposited into their Wells Fargo accounts. We always want what we can't have, and are always jealous of those who succeed and (gasp!) profit. I just find it one part funny and three parts sad that those screaming loudest from the highest mountaintop about how wrong it is are the ones the actually created the "problem". Our elected leaders, ladies and gents.

Me? I'd be happy to get some food trade this year. Can't tax that........yet.